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A Significant Encounter

Lately I’ve been reading over some of my journals.

I was actually looking for a certain writing, one from back in December of 2008.

It was then that I had a “Significant Encounter” with God.

This was not my first “Significant Encounter” with Him; however it may have been the most life changing one that I can remember.

I was just beginning to come out from what I called the “Cave Days”, more on that in a different post.  Suffice to say, I still was not standing too steadily, but I had spent an enormous amount of time asking God some questions.  These questions seemed insurmountable to me, but to Him? Not so much.

The questions I was asking were actually the right kind.  They weren’t the “Why?” questions, which Graham Cooke calls “victim questions”.  These questions were more like “What am I supposed to do with all this?” and “What should I be learning from all of this?” and “How will this ever turn into something that will glorify You?”

The voice of a friend who just returned from living in Africa as a missionary rang in my ears .  “We are human beings, not human doings.”  Yet I asked also if that wasn’t what just I had been doing for the past six or seven years, “Being?”

Now, about that certain writing, the one from back in December of 2008, here’s how that went.

I was happy to drive the forty or so miles north of where I live to hear a speaker from an adjoining state.  Her style and excitement had always captivated me in the past, and I felt that perhaps she could help to lift my mood.  My mood wasn’t bad, per se, but I certainly wasn’t too exuberant about things these days.  I was just drifting along. 

When I arrived, my mood seemed to lift somewhat, and I was enjoying what I was hearing.  Then in my head, I heard myself asking God one more time, “Just what is it I’m supposed to be doing?” 

The answer was immediate.  “Go back to the darkest of your days and bring those trapped there, here, to where you are with Me.”

My heart sank, and my head replied “I can’t do that!  I don’t know how!”  My knees hit the floor when I sensed Gods displeasure with my response.  I could almost hear Him say “You’ll asked me literally for years what I want you to do, I tell you, and you say you can’t?”

True repentance could be my only response.

A bit later, one of the speakers’ team prayed with me.  She told me that I was living with “Death Structures.”

I did not know what “Death Structures” were, but my journey to find our was only just beginning.

(Next post – Death Structures)


			

Forgiveness


“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

– Lewis B. Smedes  (Christian author)

“Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life.”

– John Lennon (Singer/song writer)

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Jesus Christ (Son of God)

How can you say that after what they did to you?

If we fail in the task of forgiveness, we will forever remain captive.

Those who hurt you go on with their lives.

Even if they have shame or guilt, it has no effect on you.

They are “free” to go about their business as usual.

We are held captive in our homes or our bodies and in our minds and our behaviors.

Anything but free. Victims forever.

When we will not learn to forgive, and it does take some learning, we then begin to have a whole nother set of circumstances.

Our brains become clouded.

Maybe with hatred and bitterness, definitely with confusion.

Our bodies may begin to become sick. Our chemicals may become off balanced.

Our emotions become overwhelmed. We may believe we are not worthy to be cared for and loved on.

We may even begin to believe that whatever was done to us was deserved.

Feeling that sense of wrongful entitlement (since we deserved it right?) causes us to medicate ourselves to hide the pain.

This may manifest itself in many ways that often include;

  • Drug and alcohol abuse
  • Sleep disorders
  • Eating disorders
  • Self mutilation
  • Sexual disorders
  • Depression
  • Poor health
  • Perfectionism
  • Excessive fear/guilt/shame
  • Excessive introvert/extrovert behaviors

This list is in no way inclusive, and the combinations of these symptoms are endless.

The truth about this list is that with it in place, the mind can never fully be at rest.

The Bible speaks to this issue in the book of Proverbs.

Chapter 14, verse 30 in the Amplified Bible.

A calm and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body,

but envy, jealousy, and wrath are like rottenness of the bones.

Again this issue is referred to in the book of Proverbs

Chapter 17, verse 22 in the New International Version.

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

In the end, unforgiveness, causes us great unhappiness,

and causes much distress in our tissues and a crushing in our bones.

The ACTION of forgiveness takes only a moment.

The walking out of it in our everyday life,

requires much returning to the ACTION that we took.

Forgiveness, is a verb. An action word.

Sometimes we must return to that action daily or hourly, but more often every few minutes until the “sense” of forgiveness sticks.

How will you know when it’s sticking?

You’ll gradually sense a lighter feeling on a more regular basis, and somewhere down the road,

you’ll look back and realize that the pain has really lessened, and you’ve hardly given those

circumstances a second thought. The heaviness on your heart has been lifted.

You may even be able to pray for the one who caused you so much pain to begin with.

Luke 26:28 (NASB) Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Sounds impossible doesn’t it? Believe me it’s not.

It is not easy, I won’t let on like it is, but it is possible.

Mark 9:23-24 NIV 1984 says “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”24 Immediately the boy’s   father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Please pray with me.

Heavenly Father;

I pray today that you will help me to forgive the people in my life that have caused me harm.

I don’t want to be their captive any more.

I’m not sure I believe it is possible, but You say it is, so I’ll try to believe.

Father, my prayer today does not mean that the things in my past did not occur.

What it means is that I want to give up my captivity to them,

so that I can begin to live a life in the freedom that You alone can provide.

Lord give me a Significant Encounter with You.

Let the change in me begin today.

One step at a time, so that when I look back, what I’ll see is You.

In Jesus name,

Amen

Good Girls Don’t …..



Good girls don’t….
 
 But you do.”

I’ll never forget those words as long as I live.

What kind of words are those to speak to a girl who is barely a teenager?

Scripture tells us that words have the power to bring either life or death.

Well those words spoken to me during that time, used their power to bring death.

This bio-dad of mine spoke words of death over me, his own flesh and blood.

Did he know? Did he care? That really doesn’t matter now.

The fruit of death simmered next to my heart,

rotten to my soul for the first half of my life.

Those words burned on my insides,

and confirmed that I was indeed worthless.

Their poison had soaked into the very fabric of my being.

I had no idea what God said in His word about me at the time,

so I simply acted out what I knew to be true.

I became a “Bad Girl”.

The words bio-dad said about “good” girls continued to simmer on the inside.

Proverbs 18:21   (NIV) The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

 

As a young mom I wondered that there must be a way to protect my children from the same mind numbing shame.

Not that they would be abused,

But I felt that somehow my “uncleanness” would somehow get on them.

It became ever important for me to find out how to keep them safe from the same fate.

 

What would I do with the words spoken to me?  Could the power of those words be changed?

As a young Christian, I learned that change was possible.

 

(Please see the Rescue page on this blog if you do not know Christ)

 

I found I needed God’s point of view on the matter.

Then, after reading the verses 500 times,

I read them again, and this time, they went straight to my heart.

They told me what God Himself thought about those words of evil spoken over me.

Here’s what they said;

John 6:63 (NIV)  The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.  The words I have spoken to you

They are full of the Spirit and life.

Could it be that what God thought of me was the exact opposite of bio-dads words?

It was certainly worth a try.

So I put my trust in Him.

Over and over and over.

Those old thoughts were sticky and hard to get rid of.

Persistence and believing what God said now began to rule the life I was living.

It was a new life, a life of truth.

My history held no surprise for Him,

And God only needed for me to acknowledge HIS thoughts to begin healing.

 

Psalms 139:13 – 16 (NASB) 13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

You will read these last verses probably more than any others on this blog.

These words are true.

These words are life.

These words are what God thinks.

The real truth is, it doesn’t really matter what anyone else says!

He knew you before you ever were, and made you special, for a real reason, for His glory,

and believe it or not, a real relationship with Him!

So please consider writing these verses on a card and keeping them handy.

 

Read. Recite. Repeat.